In the current information age, information technology (IT) tools are extensively used in enterprises and other organizations in order to facilitate processing of documents and data. IT management tools (such as application software) are available to IT administrators to assist the administrators with monitoring, managing and maintaining IT assets, such as network-connected devices [e.g., computers, printers, scanners, multi-function devices, etc.]. The number of IT devices within a managed environment is generally increasing and IT administrators are often required to oversee a growing number of IT assets.
Firmware is a type of programming for control, monitoring and sometimes even data processing, on an electronic device and is typically held in non-volatile memory such as ROM, EPROM, flash memory, etc. Some firmware may only provide services to higher-level software, and some other firmware may be the only program that runs on the device. Device firmware may be changed or updated to fix bugs in the program or to add, enhance or modify device functionalities. In the typical enterprise environment, IT administrators need to manually check for firmware updates, download them, and apply them to each device. Such conventional approach for firmware update can be highly burdensome and requires the administrator to exercise a high level of repetitious mental and manual activities.